In a new development for higher education file-sharing policy, Duke announced Friday that it will now require music trade associations to supply proof of copyright infringement before forwarding settlement letters to students.

Over the past few yeaars, universities have been caught in the crosshairs of coordinated legal crackdowns on students by the Recording Industry Association of America, forcing administrators to balance their legal obligations under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act with their obligation to protect students.

Duke is the latest in a small number of universities that have taken a stance against the RIAA's charges approach, joining the ranks of institutions like Harvard University, the University of Washington and the University of Oregon. In particular, Harvard has been noted for its professors' active position against RIAA litigation, but Duke's policy has attracted media interest as well.

"I have gotten several phone calls from colleagues at other universities who are interested in this policy that Duke has done," Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta said.

Duke's refusal to forward RIAA settlement letters to students without proof is a positive step, but raises questions within copyright infringement litigation over what exactly constitutes proof, said Troy Dow, former vice president and counsel for technology and new media for the Motion Picture Association of America and a senior lecturing fellow at the School of Law.

"There's difficult standards for proof, and the DMCA itself doesn't outline it," said Dow, who is now vice president and council in intellectual property legal policy and strategy for The Walt Disney Company. "I'm not aware of any precedent of Duke's particular approach, but my question would be, 'Does this put Duke at some legal risk? Could Duke be potentially sued for contributing to copyright infringement?'"

Dow said Duke's demand for proof in the form of a corresponding downloader's IP address might cause RIAA investigators to obtain a corresponding IP in an underhanded way.

"The RIAA investigators who patrol the file-sharing networks might download from that student, get the IP address from the investigator and then forward that to Duke," Dow said.

RIAA spokeswoman Liz Kennedy said the agency's methods of obtaining information regarding proof of copyright infringement remain lawful under the DMCA, but declined to comment further.

Administrators adopted the new policy to protect students from RIAA tactics that they believe to be flawed, he said.

"We learned that RIAA practices may not result in clear and convincing evidence of illegal activity," Moneta said. "We seek to balance priorities-to do what we are required by the RIAA, as well as provide protection to students.... We asked ourselves, 'Will this policy fly under the University's legal obligations?' And the answer was yes."

Moneta noted that the new policy concerns only the forwarding of RIAA settlement letters, which demand that the recipients stop facilitating third-party downloads of copyrighted files and invite them to accept a financial settlement instead of litigation. Infringement notices that fall under the DMCA-which simply insist that recipients stop engaging in illegal online file-sharing-will still be forwarded to students, he added.

Duke's new policy does not prevent the release of student information in the event of an RIAA subpoena, unless the subpoena is issued outside of North Carolina. Moneta emphasized that Duke does not release student information to the RIAA unless a subpoena is produced.

But the RIAA's increasing use of ex parte discovery-a method of obtaining a subpoena without notifying the accused-in their lawsuits poses a potential threat to this protection, New York-based lawyer Ray Beckerman said.

Beckerman, who runs the blog "The Recording Industry vs. The People" and has fought the RIAA extensively in court, explained that the University's most important responsibility is to protect the due process rights of its students, and to ensure that if students are brought into litigation, it is through appropriate means.

"The only people who can preserve the rights and anonymity of the students is the University itself," Beckerman said. "This is what our country's federal rules are for."